LTE-A

T-Mobile isn't the only carrier with announcements to make today, as Verizon has rolled out increased LTE speeds across the United States. This new initiative is being called Verizon LTE Advanced (otherwise known as LTE-A), which is essentially just another phrase for carrier aggregation, and Verizon says it's now live in 461 locations from coast-to-coast.

Our Internet connections are getting crowded. With more and more people using the Internet, some on more than just one or two devices, networks are getting overloaded and over burdened. That problem is a bigger one for mobile carriers because their bandwidths are limited to a certain spectrum that they pay for. Qualcomm is trying to alleviate that problem just a bit by introducing a new chipset that will allow users and carriers to ride on what is known as the unlicensed spectrum of the Internet.

Lenovo might be more known for its notebooks, but its smartphones, especially its VIBE line, is definitely catching up in fame. Here at CES 2015, the manufacturer is showing off a new kind of smartphone, the P90. This 5.5 incher boasts of the best that Intel has to offer in the market space, being the first to bear the chip maker's newest 64-bit smartphone processor as well as its new LTE-A compatible modem, giving buyers the power and speed that consumers expect in this smartphone day and age.

LG might be showcasing a ton of new electronics, particularly Smart TVs, next week at CES 2015, but at its mobile booth, the attention grabber will most likely be the odd G Flex 2, the successor to 2013's odd curved G Flex. But more than just the odd curved display that still has to prove its purpose in the market, the LG G Flex 2 is now rumored to bring yet another first to the table: the first 64-bit phone with tri-band carrier aggregation.

Cat. 4, Cat. 6, and now Cat. 10. These chipmakers are really pushing the cellular capabilities of their products to the limits, perhaps even faster than networks can actually adopt these network speeds. Of course, that has never been a reason for the likes of Qualcomm and Samsung to take it easy. Following the mobile chip leader's footsteps, Samsung is now said to also have an Exynos ready next year that will achieve speeds of 450 Mbps on downlink, almost twice as fast as Cat. 6's 300 Mbps.

UK mobile carrier EE has announced that it has a new and faster mobile 4G service available for users in Central London. The service is LTE-A or LTE-Advanced and it promises data speeds up to 150Mbps. for starters only Central London will get the new blazing fast mobile connectivity, but EE plans to role LTE-A out to greater London in 2015. Average data speeds are expected to be around 90Mbps with a compatible device and plan.

Just as Samsung revealed a late-season upgrade to their Galaxy S4 with the "LTE-A" model last year, this year’s Galaxy S5 Plus has arrived. Here in 2014, this means an upgrade past the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 to a higher-grade Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 with 2.5GHz clock speed, Krait 450 CPUs, and Adreno 420 GPUs. What’s all that mean to the lay person? It means it can process better, harder, faster, stronger. This device also works with LTE Cat. 6 instead of Cat. 4, meaning you can go faster once again - supposing you've got LTE Cat. 6 in your area, that is to say.

You've probably heard of WiFi Direct, which lets devices connect to each other via WiFi when and where they need to, without the need for a wireless access point like a router. Now Qualcomm is rooting for something similar yet something new. LTE Direct is basically the same except that, as the name would imply, it leverages an LTE network instead. And it's ultimate purpose: to make sure your mobile devices receive location-relevant promotions and information without draining your battery.

The Samsung Galaxy F, or Galaxy S5 Prime, is finally here, but not really. It isn't going by either of those names and won't be looking as polished as they were rumored to be. Instead, Samsung has chosen to christen it the Galaxy S5 LTE-A to focus more on the uber downloading speeds new buyers could be getting and to distract you from feeling a bit cheated for buying a Galaxy S5 that is now somewhat dwarfed by this.

It would appear that Samsung will be bringing on another advanced version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, this time working with the Active version - waterproof, that is. Like the original Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A, this version looks to carry the more advanced processor in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core SoC. This version also works with LTE-A, also known as LTE-Advanced, that is multi-band LTE ready for the next generation in connectivity.

LG has unveiled one of its latest big-screen smart devices called the Vu 3. This Vu series is a rather odd line of 4:3 aspect ratio smartphones featuring big screens. The Vu 3 offers much of the same hardware and many of the same features of the LG G2.

We've been hearing rumors that the iPhone 5S and LG G2 will come with fingerprint scanners, but they no longer will be the first smartphones to include such a feature, as Pantech has beaten the crowd to the punch. The company launched the Vega LTE-A in Korea, and it comes with the fingerprint scanner, as well as a rear touchpad.